Hudson River

So after a day in Waterford to shower, laundry and resupply we headed off through Lock 1 – the last lock and into the Hudson River. Sal and I put our mast up on a city dock in Albany. We then fueled up and motored to Castleton to help my parents put their mast up using the crane. They were almost finished by the time they got there. They decided to stay the night on a mooring ball for $5. There were none left by the time we got there, so we continued on about 10 miles and anchored behind Coxasackie Island. It was a beautiful evening, warm, quiet and best of all no mosquitos. About midnight the winds picked up out of the blue and we had a roll-y first night.

The next day both boats motored into a strong wind and waves to Catskills and docked in the day docks. We took a trip into the city and viewed all the decorated cats they have along the sidewalk. Away from the water it was almost 30’C. We stayed the night here because it was too windy to go on. We went out to a restaurant to celebrate a little early Sal’s birthday. Again that night we had increased winds overnight for about an hour, then they died down a bit.

The next morning (Sat. Sept 25) we got an early start and were out and on our way by the crack of dawn. Light winds until about 8:30 when they picked up a bit and since they were favourable we put up the sails and had the greatest sail that day until we reached Poughkeepsie were we had planned to stay the night. Dad needed to stay at the docks because when he had unfurled his ‘yankee sail’, the halyard holding it up broke, and the whole sail fell down. So he had to climb up the mast to retrieve the halyard so he could raise the sail again. The first 2 times up the mast were unsuccessful, until finally on the 3^rd try and with a bit of wire and tape, he was able to thread the rope through the pulleys. Again we had about 2 hours of really strong wind out of no-where. And no where was it forecasted….very strange.

We had another early morning (on a Sunday too!) as we had over 40 miles to travel and when against the current we go half our speed. Well we have never seen so many power boaters in our life!!! I think everyone who owned a boat on the Hudson was out zooming around. We were so annoyed by the end by getting rocked around by everyone’s wake, but finally made it to an anchorage near Sing Sing Prison by 5pm.

Mon. Sept 27 was Sal’s birthday!! We had a layover in order to rest up and recuperate after a long week. We had a big breakfast, watched a movie together and read in the afternoon. It was nice to be able to spend a day not on the go. Monday evening the winds switched to the south and increased and where we were provided no protection against the waves….so we had a very rocky & rolly night again, this time getting barely any sleep. We tried moving closer to the shore on a mooring bouy but that didn’t do much against the 2 feet waves, so we just endured it until the morning where we moved to a more protected area 3miles away. Lesson learned – always move to anchor where protected from the wind and the waves if possible.

We were hoping to be through New York City by now but the weather has not allowed this to happen, so we’re going to wait it out. We’re not in a hurry because after New York, we will have to go out into the Ocean around the coast of New Jersey and currently the weather is worse out there.